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Loose Canons
Flying Debt Ceiling SGO
Catching up with the global reality show.
Fifty years and two days ago, the Soviet Union began building the Berlin Wall. It seems almost that long since Senate Democrats passed a budget. But now that the glass debt ceiling has been shattered, and a congressional Supercommittee has been created to vouchsafe to us our economic future, we have a moment to catch up with the global reality show.
There’s an awful lot of important SGO we’ve ignored in during the debt ceiling mess, so we have to do at least a quick roundup. (For those just joining us, “SGO” is the comprehensively-useful acronym for “s*** goin’ on” invented by my pal and former SEAL, Al Clark.)
President Sarkozy’s excellent Libya adventure goes into its sixth month without noticeable effect on Muammar Gaddafi. President Obama, playing Sancho Panza to Sarkozy’s Don Quixote, has kept the operational tempo of US Air force sorties sufficiently high to conceal our allies’ inability to go it alone. So, while the Supercommittee debates defense budget cuts, just how is the Libya operation being paid for?
According to congressional sources, the Air Force is robbing its training budget to pay for its part of the Libya operation. I can only guess which part of the training budget is being raided, but I’m sure it’s not being taken out of the funding to train airmen on how to accept openly-serving homosexuals in their ranks. The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is being implemented as the Obama regime’s top military priority. Maybe the Libya costs are being taken out of the budget for training of Air Force pararescue jumpers. You don’t know the PJ’s: they train much like the SEALs do, but their mission is combat search and rescue. Their school is known in the spec ops community as “superman school,” so the PJ’s probably won’t be cut by the Supercommittee, if only out of professional courtesy.
So the Air Force is probably taking the Libya operational costs out of the training budget for our fly-guys. That’s no problem because now-retired Defense Secretary Bob Gates was sure that we’d never have to fight a conventional war again. So if every hour of flying over Libya is paid for by canceling an hour of some graying lieutenant colonel flying against a few greenhorn lieutenants to teach them how old age and airborne treachery overcome youth and enthusiasm, it’s no big deal. Until some of the young’uns have to fly air combat maneuvers in something other than a flight simulator.
And as well as things are going in Libya, they’re just as good elsewhere in the Middle East. While we are playing tag with Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad — the Syrian guy whose daddy achieved a coveted spot on the “state sponsors of terrorism” team in 1979 — is merrily massacring his subjects. According to Hillary’s State Department, Bashar has devolved from “reformer” to “illegitimate” in just a few months, merely for murdering a few thousand Syrians who are left to his mercies while we defend innocent Libyans, if any such there be.
The Big Question in the White House is whether Barry should demand Assad’s resignation. As the Washington Post recently editorialized, a presidential demand for Assad’s resignation would be the “last handkerchief” to be dropped. The Post is wrong. Barry has a whole drawer full of handkerchiefs. The presidential gauntlet has been sent to a GSA warehouse to be placed aside Indiana Jones’ lost ark.
We have an immediate and compelling interest in removing Assad from power. The facts that we are engaged militarily in Libya where we have no such interest, and that Barry is tossing wet hankies at Assad, will not go unnoticed by enemy and friend and nations such as Iraq, which is both.
And while we’re guessing how quickly our Iraqi experiment in nation-building will fall apart (it’s even money which will go first: Iraq or Afghanistan), it’s anyone’s guess how many covert cyberwar missions were blown by McAfee’s revelation of “Operation Shady Rat.” The aforementioned Rat was an enormous cyberespionage operation against 72 entities — governments, companies and even the International Olympic Committee — which the computer security company said indicated was the creation of a “state actor.” In this case, as McAfee’s report implies at length, the “state actor” was clearly China.
That China would be responsible is not exactly a surprise. “Shady Rat” is the apparent successor to the “Titan Rain” Chinese cyberespionage op of the late 1990s to early 2000s. The severity of the Chinese cyperespionage campaign cannot to be overestimated. As McAfee’s report said:
What we have witnessed over the past five to six years has been nothing short of a historically unprecedented transfer of wealth — closely guarded national secrets (including from classified government networks), source code, bug databases, email archives, negotiation plans and exploration details for new oil and gas field auctions, document stores, legal contracts, SCADA configurations, design schematics and much more has “fallen off the truck” of numerous, mostly Western companies and disappeared in the ever-growing electronic archives of dogged adversaries.
McAfee’s report, according to a source in the cyberwar community, may have done more harm than good because it indirectly divulged that McAfee was doing its own cyber-counterattacks. It said:
McAfee has gained access to one specific Command & Control server used by the intruders. We have collected logs that reveal the full extent of the victim population since mid-2006 when the log collection began.
McAfee and our intelligence and military cyberwarriors should — absolutely and comprehensively — be on the counterattack, as I argued in the latest AmSpec magazine. The obvious question that my source said was worrying our intelligence and law enforcement communities is whether the revelation that McAfee gained access to the [Chinese] command and control server resulted in the adversary’s ability to track and terminate several classified cyber operations against them.
Classified information, contrary to the liberal meme, is not made public for damned good reasons. I’m betting that the McAfee report didn’t release something that the Chinese didn’t already know. That’s not likely the case in the White House’s latest escapade.
About the Author
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.
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Timothy L. Pennell| 8.15.11 @ 7:26AM
How many times?
Does anyone remember the Carter years? Not THESE Carter years. The ORIGINAL Carter years.
Every aspect of our Armed Forces was DECIMATED. Every Service was CUT. Morale was in the toilet. Military Retentions, fell off the table. Our Enemies became EMBOLDENED by our WEAKNESS, and they ACTED UPON IT. We became a PAPER TIGER.
We got the birth of Radical Islamic Fundamentalism, and all the good stuff that goes along with it. The Shah was ABANDONED. Khomeini was put in power.
You know the rest.
The SOVIETS were on the march, once again. They took Afghanistan.
We Elected Ronald Reagan, and our 300 Ship NAVY, became a 600 Ship Fleet. Morale was restored to the Ranks. They had a Commander In Chief who REVERED them, and they returned his Respect for them, back to him.
Reagan REBUILT what Carter has DESTROYED. America was STRONG, again. Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Libya.
AMERICA was on the march.
G.H.W. Bush followed Reagan. The WALL came down, at last. IRAQ was CRUSHED by our Military, in a WEEK. Thrown out of Kuwait, and SLAUGHTERED on the Highway Of DEATH, as they limped back home.
"DON'T MESS WITH THE U.S." was back in Vogue.
Bill Clinton appeared in 1992. The COLD WAR was over. We didn't NEED a Military. The CUTS began. Naval Vessels began disappearing. Army Divisions. Air Force Squadrons. Military Personnel were NOT ALLOWED to wear their Military Uniforms inside the White House, by order of the QUEEN. There was no money allocated for thing like, Ammunition and Fuel. Tanks could not be trained in. Pilots could not train in their Jets. Live Fire Exercises, became a thing of the past. Morale fell off the table. The word went out: The PAPER TIGER was back.
The World Trade Center was BOMBED in 1993. The Khobar Towers were BOMBED. The 2 Embassies, in Africa, were BOMBED. The USS COLE was BOMBED. Our RESPONSE?
Nothing. Our Commander In Chief was more interested in PLEASURING HIMSELF, than PROTECTING this Country.
Radical Islam was on the March. And what they saw in Clinton's 8 Years COVINCED THEM, that America was RIPE for an Attack on HER soil.
911 came a few Months later.
G.W. Bush restored our Military, after it had, once again, been DISMANTLED by a Democrat President. He ATTACKED the Taliban on THEIR SOIL. He ATTACKED Iraq, throwing out the MADMAN, and setting up the conditions for Democracy and Freedom, for that Country. And, he had our Military, do what they're here for: KILL OUR ENEMIES, by the THOUSANDS.
AMERICA was FEARED, once again. Mistakes were made. It's called The Fog Of War.
Enter the Muslim Boy, raised in the Muslim Schools and Mosques of Indonesia. His parents HATED this Country. His parents HATED the U.S. Military. His Mentors HATED this Country, and it's Military. He has surrounded himself with people, who HATE this Country, and ESPECIALLY, our ARMED FORCES, all of his life. They are the bulk of his Administration, and ALL of his Czars. And, upon taking office, he wasted no time, letting the world know, just who he is.
He began APOLOGIZING for US. We were "Too often ARROGANT". We didn't understand the ways of other cultures. America would REACH OUT, to her Enemies, in Peace and Understanding.
Our ENEMIES could smell DEATH on him. On us. Iraq has become HOT, again. Afghanistan BURNS, from the lack of will, to use our Military resources. We lose Helicopters full of OUR BEST, when ARTILLERY should be, the weapon of choice. We risk our RANGERS and SEALS, while our BOMBERS sit on the Tarmac. Our Commander In Chief has our guys reading our Enemy, MIRANDA RIGHTS.
And, now he seeks to buttress his spending, for his dream of a Socialist Utopian Society, in America, on the backs of our only hope of survival. The U.S. Military. He has a SLASH and BURN Plan, on his desk, as we speak.
How many times?
How many times are we gonna TRUST a Democrat with the Security of the Country? How many times will we give them authority, over the LIVES of our Brave Men and Women, who let us sleep at night, secure in our beds?
How many times will the words: WEAK ON DEFENSE, be ignored?
"If you fail to LEARN from History.....................
POST American| 8.15.11 @ 7:27AM
----That 1.5 quadrillion in FAKE usury derivatives
DEBT
------The billions? trillions? in debt to our U.S.
taxpayer underwritten and enabled 'RED Chinese
miracle'
-------The continuing outflow of capital to the
above for such things as infra-structure and
'profit insurance' for companies that used to
be American (---THANK YOU to both Bushes)
------AND of course, central to it ALLL, the
PRIVATE, usury driven, foreign owned,
ILLEGAL, world war and depression formenting
----'Federal' Reserve
Call us when you're ready to pick up the plotline---
Bill| 8.15.11 @ 9:48AM
I guess the time limitations of the War Powers Act, limiting the period of time a president can send U.S. armed forces on adventures in the world, has been effectively forgotten.
I mean, we still have troops in the Balkans as well as Libya, for heaven's sake! Where is Congress? Where are the indignant antiwar antimilitarists antiadventurists?
Martin Owens| 8.15.11 @ 11:25AM
The answer to your question " where is Congress?" does not matter one way or the other any more.
This is post-Constitutional America, where the government does what it damn well pleases, and those who disagree had damn well better look out...
megapotamus| 8.15.11 @ 1:57PM
I'm not sure what the compelling national interest in Syria would be, especially as Jed informs us that we have none, that would be zero, in Libya. Wouldn't even a devout Paulian have to concede that a head of state engaged in deadly terror attacks on American civilians had earned an armed response? Yes, Lockerbie and the Berlin disco are long ago and far away but Assad hasn't even done THAT much, has he? That said I am also dubious of Libya if only because of the outright dismissal of Congress. The burying of this travesty by the press is really the blackest mark those pseudo-pacifists have accrued yet. The cyber theater should certainly not be neglected but there is an eruption of SGO far more deserving of our close attention. What dat? Well, it is the continuing saga of the Osama raid and its absurdly implausible public description that is now, amazingly, being turned into a movie a la Stone's JFK. And friends, that kabuki dance was not concluded with the burial at sea of a tall man with a long beard. The public evidence that OBL was present and killed in Abottobad is effectively nil and the procedures alleged to have secured that evidence violate laws of physics and logic. And now two dozen of the elite operators on that mission are killed in a single helicopter that is ambushed by cavemen? And where are the questions? At the very least it was malfeasance to offer such a massed target. Does anyone really believe that this was a "lucky shot" either with the supposed weapon, an RPG, or in the opportunity of such a fat target? Yes, that is quite some luck indeed. Cap that with the nauseating photo-op with Obama framed by a sunset when photos were banned... how much contradiction and PR blather are we supposed to swallow? But no one wants to be labeled a Truther or a conspiracy theorist so the questions are never asked. Out loud. You can be certain that our elite troops, now half spy and half soldier, are asking these questions of themselves and each other when ordered out. We who breathe in ease and comfort at home should ask these questions for them, and scrutinize the answers closely. Jed, I'm lookin' at you.
megapotamus| 8.15.11 @ 2:01PM
Oh, and let's have a moratorium on these cut and paste comments. Guys, we are all aware of... the several issues you wallpaper us with. Save it for your own blog. Read and comment on topic, please. Please.